Keith Brian Schulefand

Keith pawned us off on a new attorney and did none of the work himself and then billed us at his rate. He did not follow through on documents and proceedings which then forced us to pay a second attorney to back track. He refused to admit any wrong doing and then sued us for $ that we never should ha...ve been billed for. He can say whatever he wants to defend himself but when it's all said and done I find his ethics extremely questionable and his services unreliable at best

Keith was my lawyer for three years. My experience was similar to the previous poster so now I see that it was not me but that there is a pattern in Keith's behavior. I'm not sure if Keith just takes on more clients than he can handle or if he just doesn't care but, in the time that he represented ...me I had a lot of conflict with him. He seemed knowledgeable when I hired him and I trusted him. I needed a lawyer that knew the legal system and would fight for me to be treated fairly and he seemed to communicate confidence and experience. That trust had eroded to nothing over three years. He did not respond to emails or calls for weeks and months at a time, he would call me the week of a hearing and want documents right away when he had not clarified what they were or what they were supposed to contain, (some documents like commissioned affidavits from 3rd parties would need weeks to arrange, not one day like he wanted). Other times I would ask for a list of what was needed for the argument I wanted to make and I got no response - ever. He failed to file documents and motions I asked him to file and then refused to call to explain why. When pressed he would deflect the conversation to another topic telling me in "legalese" what was best for me. The problem is, when I checked his advice with other lawyers for a second opinion, it turned out that it was not in my best interest. I would email and call weeks and months before hearings, pressing for a run down of what was needed, or the direction we would go in, and I would not get a response until the week of the hearing. By then, it was too late and my case suffered. I repeatedly asked for documents on file at court, which he was supposed to have copies of, and was told they had nothing else. Then after the hearing, those documents would miraculously materialize. I found out he failed to file important divorce documents and just left it without telling me. He screwed up a motion in my case because he refused to sit down and talk with me to identify what I had that could help our case. The other attorneys filed documents last minute and he didn't call them on it. He kept pressing to go to trial even though I was trying to avoid going to court. I began to suspect him of backroom deals with the other side because he seemed only to happy to push things in their favor repeatedly. In the legal business, lawyers literally have their clients lives in their hands and they need to act responsibly and compassionately, not herd us like cattle and see us as a paycheck. After all of this I realized that he was not looking out for my best interests. I wish no one ill will but, if you want a lawyer that has your best interests at heart, go somewhere else.